This invention relates to an ion beam processing apparatus, and more particularly to an ion beam processing apparatus provided with a large-bore ion source, which is suitably used as a processing apparatus for ion beam milling and ion beam sputtering.
An ion beam processing apparatus has heretofore been used for processing a semiconductor substrate, a magnetic head and so on, and for example, as described in Hitachi Review Vol. 68, No. 6, June 1986, there has been proposed an ion beam milling apparatus provided with a large-bore ion source in order to achieve a high throughput. This ion beam milling apparatus comprises an ion source for forming introduced gas into plasma to produce an ion beam, a processing chamber for processing samples by the ion beam emitted from the ion source, a vacuum chamber interconnecting the ion source and the processing chamber, a vacuum valve connecting the vacuum chamber to an exhaust device, and a control panel responsive to operation for effecting control concerning the processing of the samples. The ion source is formed into a large-bore design, and with this design, many samples can be processed at a time.
In the conventional apparatus, a sample holder is fixedly mounted within the processing chamber through a rotation shaft in such a manner that the sample holder is supported at its opposite sides by the rotation shaft. For loading and unloading samples relative to the sample holder, a chamber door, provided at the processing chamber so as to be opened and closed, must be opened, and therefore a space for allowing the opening and closing of the chamber door need to be provided at the front side of the chamber door. And besides, this space is provided between the chamber door and the control panel, and an operation surface of the control panel and an operation surface of the chamber door are not disposed in a common plane, and therefore the operator must move to reach these operation surfaces each time he operates the control panel, and opens and closes and the chamber door.